The Winds Of Change
by the2evils
Summary: There's new girl in town and it's the Hokage's niece. With a dark past and a violent attitude how will she fair in Konoha. Lots of different pairings. NS, KI, IS, HG, NOC, TJ, KO, KK, TG, KS, IVarious
1. Chapter 1: The New Arrival

**_The Winds of Change_**

Chapter One: The New Arrival

It was eight in the morning in Konoha and the villagers were just starting their days'. Shops were opening, children were heading off to school, ninjas were going to the Hokage tower to get their assignments and Jiraiya was at the bath house doing some research for his new Icha Icha installment. Everything was perfect, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and ——.

"Kakashi get your ass in here now!" Tsunade's voice rang out through the valley.

Yes everything was perfect.

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A few minutes later Kakashi entered the Hokage's office.

"You called Hokage-sama," he said in a bored tone.

"Forget the mission your team was given today, you're going somewhere else," Tsunade said.

Kakashi stared blankly ahead waiting for her to continue.

"I received a letter from my younger sister today, she had sent my niece out alone, to come here. I want you and your team to go and meet her. You'll leave right away, and don't be late!" she finished, sending Kakashi out of the office.

Kakashi made his way to the usual meeting place where the rest of his team was waiting for him.

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"You've got to be kidding me, why do we have to go pick up some snotty-nosed brat?" Naruto complained.

"Look on the bright side dobe. With such an easy mission even you can't screw it up," Sasuke commented, making Naruto pout and glare at Sasuke.

Kakashi just sighed and blocked out Naruto. 'This was going to be another long day,' he thought to himself.

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A small figure could be seen perched upon mount Hokage, specifically on tope of the head of the fifth and current Hokage. Her build was very small for someone her age. She stood at and even five feet and weighed only one hundred and ten pounds. Her hair was long and black with blue streaks in it. Her ice blue eyes looked down on the village. She was dressed in a pair of tight dark grey shorts, and a dark grey t-shirt with the symbol for crazy on it. Under the shorts and t-shirt he whole body except for her head and hands were covered in fish net. The only jewelry she wore was a simple black choker, and two thick black cuffs on her wrists. She had a small pack secured around her upper right leg where she kept her weapons. One the ground beside her sat and large black pack that carried her clothes and some food.

She had set out from home two days ago. It should have taken her at least four days to reach Konoha from where she lived. However when the sun set on the first night of the trip she had found it impossible to sleep due to the fact that she felt she would be more vulnerable while she slept. So instead she just kept walking. The same was true for the second night. In the end she cut the time it should have taken her to get here in half.

Seeing as this was the case he Aunt wouldn't be expecting her for another two days so she was biding her time before going to _surprise_ her Aunt. She had heard her Aunt yelling this morning all the way up on the mountain and did not want to get on her bad side so soon. She didn't even want to be here in the first place. Her Mother had forced her to come by saying that there was nothing for her at home. Of course she was sure that _He_ had something to do with her Mother decision as well. She knew that they were right though, there _was_ nothing for her there, or in the town a few miles away from her house for that matter. She knew it was for the best, but she hadn't even seen her Aunt since she was eight. Still she had grown accustomed to the solitude at home and was sad to leave it behind.

She took a long drag on her cigarette and exhaled as she tried to figure out what to do.

In the end, after considering all of her options, she decided that the best choice would be to go see her Aunt right away. After she went and picked up another pack of smokes that was. She had smokes quite a few while on the road and had just finished the pack during her contemplation.

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Tsunade was having a bad day. She had just received notice that the Kazekage and his siblings were coming to town, Konoha was short handed on ninjas because of Orochimaru's last attack and on top of everything her niece was coming to visit.

Now normally that alone wouldn't have been such a big problem. However she had been given no warning until this morning, she had no where for her to stay and she didn't know how long she was going to be staying for. On the bright side she should have at least two more days to prepare for her arrival that was as long Kakashi didn't hurry back.

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The young woman approached the Hokage tower where she noticed two ninjas guarding the door. After deciding that she didn't want to speak to anyone other than her Aunt at the moment she was able the successfully gain access to the building unnoticed. However she was unable to make it much father before two more ninjas approached her in the hall.

"Can we help you?" The first one asked, he had an oversized toothpick in his mouth.

She put on the most innocent face she could manage and looked up at the man. "No thank-you, I'm fine," she answered sweetly.

The two ninjas surveyed her for a few moments before deciding that this girl was going to try and cause some trouble and reaching for their kunai.

Seeing this the young woman reached for her own weapon

"That's enough Hikari!" Tsunade commanded from behind her.

Hikari stopped and lowered her hand as the two men in front of her replaced their kunai in their pouches.

"I want you to go to my office and stay there do you understand me?" Tsunade asked.

Hikari just nodded and walked away without giving the two men a second glance. Tsunade then turned to speak to the two ninja standing before her.

"I'd appreciate it if in the future you did not provoke my family members into fighting," she stated before turning and taking the same path Hikari had taken just moments before.

Tsunade entered and took a seat at her desk across from Hikari before she spoke. "Explain yourself," she said, he voice leaving no room for argument.

"I did nothing wrong Aunt Tsunade," Hikari answered evenly." They presented their weapons first. I was only coming to see you."

"You call breaking into the Hokage tower doing nothing wrong?" Tsunade asked sternly, Hikari was silent, "What am I going to do with you Hikari? You've only been here for a few hours and you're already causing trouble."

"I said it wasn't my fault, I just didn't want to talk to anyone other than you, okay?"

Tsunade sighed, she wasn't getting anywhere with this. She needed somewhere to send the brat for now and then she needed a stiff drink. The only problem was there was a limited number of rooms left at the local hotel and those would be needed for when for when the Kazekage arrived. That left two options. One was to send her to stay with Sasuke at the empty Uchiha compound. Or she could stay in one of the empty rooms at the Hyuuga house.

Tsunade thought to herself, '_Do I really want my depressed niece staying where something as gruesome as the Uchiha massacre occurred?_' The answer was no.

"Look Hikari, I wasn't exactly given enough notice so I really so I really don't have anywhere for you to stay at the moment——."

"So basically you're saying that you don't want me here, that's fine I'll just head home then." Hikari said and started to get up.

"That's not it Hikari. I'm simply going to send you to stay with a family in the village until better lodgings can be arranged."

"You're going to making me stay with a bunch of strangers?"

"I know that's how it looks but in the end you don't know anyone other than me right now. So thins will be a good opportunity to make friends." After all there's a girl your age and a young man only a year older than you."

"Fine, whatever I'll stay there but only for as long as I have to. What about ninja training any chance I can get some of that?"

"Well you're a little old for the ninja academy, but I'm sure I can arrange for you to have a tutor," Tsunade answered.

"Sounds alright to me, so now where do I take my bags?"

"Just a moment. Shizune come in here for a moment!" Tsunade called.

With a puff of smoke a woman appeared. "Yes Tsunade-sama?"

"I'd like for you to deliver this to the Hyuuga main house," Tsunade said and scribbled a note down, "And don't come back without a reply."

"Shizune took the note and disappeared in another puff of smoke.


	2. Chapter Two: Cause for Panic

Chapter Two: Cause for Panic

They had been traveling for several hours now and there was still no sign of the Hokage's niece.

"So how old is this little brat anyway?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto you shouldn't talk about Hokage-sama's family like that," Sakura scolded.

"I wasn't really told how old she is," Kakashi said answering Naruto's question.

"So what do we know about her?" Sasuke asked.

"Let's see," Kakashi said pulling out the piece of paper he had been using for a bookmark. "She's five foot, hundred and ten pounds, black hair, blue streaks and blue eyes."

"Sounds to me like she's no more that twelve at the most," Naruto mumbled to himself and Sakura shot him a glare.

"She's probably the sweetest, most adorable little girl," the pink haired declared.

Naruto made and few retching noises behind Sakura's back. Kakashi let out and hearty laugh at Naruto's antics. Sasuke on the other hand had to suppress the urge to laugh himself. Even though they we're now seventeen Naruto hadn't matured all that much. He was still the same hyper-active ninja that never hesitated to spar off with Sasuke.

Sasuke found the thought oddly comforting that the blonde had never changed. Many of the villagers had begun to treat Sasuke differently after his return to Konoha. Not that he cared of course. It meant that most of them left him to his solitude. He had had enough of the limelight to last him a life time.

"So how far do we have to go to find her?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know," Kakashi answered, "The location of her house is a four day journey so she could be anywhere along the way.

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It only took a few minutes for Shizune to return with a young man beside her. He was tall with long black hair tied in a loose ponytail, and his eyes appeared to have no pupils.

"This is Neji Hyuuga, the nephew of the man you will be staying with," Tsunade explained. "Neji this is my niece Hikari, I'd like for you to escort her to your Uncle's house."

"Yes Hokage-sama," Neji answered and motioned for Hikari to follow him.

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The walk to the Hyuuga house was a very quiet one; in fact not a word was said between the two until they reached the door.

"This is it," Neji said before knocking on the door.

"Why don't you just walk in?" Hikari asked him.

"Because I don't live here, this is the main house, I live in the branch house," he explained.

Before she could ask what the difference was an older looking man opened the door with a young woman standing beside him.

"Ah you must be Hikari," he said, "I'm Hiashi Hyuuga; it is such an honor to have the Hokage's niece staying with us."

"Thank-you for having me sir," Hikari said.

"Right then, this is my daughter Hinata, I'm sure that the two of you will become fast friends. Neji thank-you for bringing her here you can leave now."

To Hikari, it sounded very much like the elder Hyuuga had just dismissed the younger one. Now she wasn't sure how things worked with the Hyuuga clan but it didn't seem to be the proper way to treat a family member.

"Please come inside Hikari, Hinata can show you where you'll be sleeping."

Hikari followed after the young woman. She was quiet just like her cousin. But this was a different silence than the one she had experienced from the young man. This was a more peaceful silence almost like the young woman was too timid to say anything.

"Don't mind Neji nii-san and my Father, they've never gotten along very well," Hinata explained, answering Hikari's unspoken question.

"Why is that?" Hikari asked intrigued. "I mean you are family after all, right?"

"Yes, Neji nii-san is my cousin but I'm part of the main house while he is part of the branch house. It can make friendships very strained."

"What's the difference between the two?" By this time they had reached the room that Hikari would be using, which was right across the hall from Hinata's room. As Hikari began to unpack Hinata began to explain the way things with the Hyuuga clan worked. By the end of the story Hikari had realized that those of the branch house had definitely gotten the raw end of the deal. Hinata seemed like an okay person, her father on the other hand seemed stuck-up. She wondered just how much those in the main house we're resented.

"So do you know how long you'll be staying with us for?" Hinata asked shyly.

"Well my Aunt said it would just be until she could arrange something better for me, however long that will take. I'm still not sure how long I will actually be here in Konoha though."

"Your parents didn't tell you?"

"No my Mother didn't say, but its not the first time, I've gone to visit my Uncles a few times as well over the years."

"I didn't think that Hokage-sama had any brothers, are they your father's brothers?"

"No. Mother and Aunt Tsunade don't have any brothers. They aren't really my Uncles, but I've known them my whole life so that they're almost like family to me," Hikari explained. "So you're a ninja right?" she asked to change the subject.

"Yeah that's right, I graduated from the ninja academy when I was twelve. I'm a chuunin now. What about you? What's your rank?"

"Me? I'm not really a ninja. I mean my Uncles taught me how to fight and use jutsus but I never went to an academy or anything like that."

"How come, I just assumed that because you studied under your uncles that you're interested in becoming a ninja."

"Well you see there really wasn't anywhere for me to attend. The closest village to ours didn't even have a ninja academy. My Mother's not a big fan of fighting either. All I had to do was ask though and she would've caved in for me, I just never did."

"So are you going to look into it while you're here?"

"Yeah I've already asked Aunt Tsunade about it. However I would like to see the training grounds you have here. Could you show them so me?"

"Of course follow me."

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Four days later and Hikari seemed to me fitting in well. She had spent the last few days at the training grounds. Most of the time she trained by herself but occasionally she spared with Hinata. She was never able to beat Hinata though. She had met the rest of Hinata's team as well. Two young men by the names of Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. Kiba was loud, foulmouthed and always had a large dog named Akamaru with him. Shone was just creepy it was as simple at that, he was always wearing a dark pair of sunglasses no matter where he was.

At the moment she was at the training grounds by herself, Hinata was supposed to be joining her later in the day.

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"This is a disaster. How could we miss her? Tsunade-sama will have our heads for this. We may as well just go back and tell her that we lost her. Maybe she'll at least make our deaths quick and painless," Sakura said in a panic.

They had been on the road for four days now. They had reached their destination yesterday and had been told that Hikari had left home five days ago. They should have at least passed her on the way but they hadn't seen a soul. They were on their way back to Konoha now. Kakashi was in a hurry for once. He was at least hoping that that had just missed her somewhere along the line and that they could catch her before she reached the village. The last thing he wanted was to face and angry Hokage. He was pushing the team to their limits now. They needed to go as fast as possible. That way even if they didn't find her there would be a better chance of finding her with a search party. This was the reason he never wanted to have kinds. They were just too much trouble.

"I hate kids," Naruto yelled, "Why did Tsunade-baba make us do this stupid mission in the first place. It her niece she should have come to get her herself. Stupid hag."

"Shut-up Naruto! What we have to now is get home as soon as possible and hope that Hokage-sama doesn't kill us," Sakura said. 'Stupid Naruto! This is probably his fault anyway. If he hadn't been complaining the whole way here they would have been able to concentrate on their surroundings better.' Inner Sakura yelled.

It had been like this since yesterday, Kakashi had noticed. Naruto had been complaining more than usual. Sakura was worrying over Tsunade-sama's reaction. Even Sasuke was quieter. Things were not going well. At the rate they were traveling they should reach Konoha by midday, and at that point they would have to face the music.

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Hinata was on her way to the training grounds to get Hikari. A summons had been sent for Hikari to go to the Hokage tower. When Hinata reached the training grounds Hikari had just finished turning a tree into a pile of wood chips using a combination of her shuriken, kunai, and ninjutsu. She was now standing high up on a branch in the next tree.

"Hi Hikari!" Hinata called.

"Hey Hinata, are you ready for today?" Hikari replied.

"No sorry. Actually Tsunade-sama sent a message for you. You're supposed to report to her right away," Hinata answered.

Hikari sighed and flipped off the tree. "Well I mustn't make her wait right?" Hikari joked.

"So I'll probably see you at dinner then right?" Hikari asked quietly.

"Yeah, see you later!" Hikari called as she headed for the Hokage tower.

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After four days Hikari seemed to be adapting well to Konoha. To Tsunade, Hinata and Hikari seemed to have become friends quickly. However she still had nowhere for her to stay other than the Hyuuga house. She also had been unable to find anyone to take Hikari on as a private student. Right now she was just waiting for Hikari to come to see her.

"Aunt Tsunade, you wanted to see me?" Hikari said as she poked her head in the door.

Oh how she hated it when Hikari called her Aunt Tsunade, it made her feel so old. "Yes come right in," Tsunade said and motioned for her to take a seat in the high backed chair across from her. "So how do you liking the village?"

"I like it okay. I like the training grounds, I want to start training properly as soon as possible," Hikari remarked.

"Yes about that───," Just then there was a knock on the door.

Tsunade sighed, "Come in!" she called.

Kakashi entered the room looking nervous with the rest of his team trailing behind him.

By the look on Tsunade's face it looked as if she had just been reminded of something very important.

"I'm very sorry Hokage-sama, but you see, with the mission, well, it didn't go very well, we were sort of, unable to find her," Kakashi stumbled out.

"She probably got herself lost out there, stupid little brat," Naruto said.

Tsunade had laughter in her eyes. That was all it took for Hikari to figure out what was going on. These people had been sent out to find her. Hikari was unable to hold it in, she burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Naruto demanded.

"Who's the little brat?" Hikari asked tuning her chair around.

It seemed to click right away for everyone but Naruto.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked.

"I'm Hikari and you are?" she surveyed the dumb blonde and the rest of the group.

The loud mouthed blonde was tall and well built however he was wearing an atrocious orange and black outfit. Next to him was a pink haired woman with a wide forehead. On the end was a young man that looked oddly familiar. He had black hair with pale skin he was wearing white shorts and a dark blue t-shirt. Behind them stood and older man with silver hair. One eye was covered along with his lower face.

"You're Hikari?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, but you still haven't answered my question."

"Naruto Uzumaki, I'll be taking over for your aunt in a few years," he proclaimed.

"Right whatever. What about the rest of you?"

"That young lady there is Sakura Haruno, the young man beside her in Sasuke Uchiha, and that man behind them is Kakashi Hatake," Tsunade answered. "Now Kakashi would you be interested in teaching Hikari here a bit. She wants to become a ninja but I'm afraid she's too old for the academy. What do you say?"

"I guess I can do that for you Hokage-sama," Kakashi answered reluctantly. "When do you want to start Hikari?"

"Tomorrow's fine, unless of course you want to rest up a bit first," Hikari said.

"Now that sounds like a challenge. Tomorrow it is. Eight o'clock at the training grounds be there and don't be late."

With that said Tsunade dismissed Kakashi and his team before turning back to Hikari. Hikari looked back at her Aunt.

"So how much longer am I going to be staying with the Hyuugas?" she asked.

"I'm sorry Hikari; I don't have anything for you yet. I promise I will soon though okay?"

"Right, can I go back to my training now?"

"Sure go ahead."

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On the way aback to the training grounds Hikari stopped and the Ichiraku Ramen stand for lunch. As she was waiting for her order someone came and sat down beside her.

"Hey," he said after ordering.

Hikari turned it was the young man named Naruto. "Hey yourself."

"So how long have you been here for?" he asked.

"Four days now. Why?"

"Shit, you've been here since we left hen?"

"I guess so."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen, you?"

"Same, man I thought you were younger than that," Naruto said looking shocked.

"So I gathered. Most people think that."

"So where are you staying?" he asked as there meals arrived.

"With the Hyuugas."

"I see. You don't talk much do you?"

"I do when I have something to say," she explained.

Naruto didn't seem the take the hint that she didn't want to talk to him. All through the meal he tried to make small talk with her. He asked about her life back home, what her parents were like, what kinds of music, books and movies she was interested in. Mostly trifle things like that. Hikari kept her answers short and to the point. She also completely avoided answering any questions pertaining to her Father.

After she finished eating she paid her bill and got up to leave.

"So where are you headed now?" Naruto asked her.

"The training grounds, why?

"Just wondering, well I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," he said and waved to Hikari.

"What makes you so sure about that?" she asked, Hikari hated when people assumed too much.

"I'm sure because Kakashi-sensei asked us to join you tomorrow," Naruto answered with a smile and took off.

Hikari sighed and continued on her way. It looked like tomorrow was going to be a long day if she had to put up with Naruto all day.


	3. Chapter Three: Uncle?

Chapter Three: Uncle!

Hikari got up early the next morning. She went about her morning routine as usual before heading out for the training grounds. She got there at quarter after seven. She didn't want to be late on her first day of training and piss off her new sensei. No one was there when she arrived so she set to work on another tree. She hadn't been able to sleep last night. Ever since yesterday when she saw Sasuke Uchiha, she had known that she had seen him somewhere before but she just couldn't place him. As she stood there attacking the three it suddenly cam to her. At the revelation she landed a bare handed punch and put her fist through the tree.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" she wondered out loud.

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Naruto was on his way to the training grounds for the day. He was interested to see how well Hikari could fight. She seemed like and okay girl, even if she didn't talk much. He figured it was because Konoha was still new to her and she just needed to get settled in a bit more. He wondered how late Kakashi-sensei would be today.

'Damn I should have warned Hikari about that yesterday. I hope she didn't show up too early,' Naruto thought to himself and took off at full speed.

When Naruto got there at seven thirty Hikari was sitting on the tree she had just knocked down smoking a cigarette.

"Good morning," Naruto said a little too cheerfully.

"Hey," was her only reply.

"I forgot to tell you yesterday, Kakashi-sensei is always late so we'll probably be waiting for a few hours for him to show up," Naruto explained. "We got use to it a long time ago. Now we just show up right on time."

"Then why are you here early today?"

"I figured you could use the company."

Hikari really didn't want to spend half an hour alone with Naruto but maybe she could get him to tell her more about Sasuke.

"So how long have you known Sasuke for?" Hikari asked.

Naruto sighed before answering, "We've been on the same team since we were twelve, and before that we were in the same class at the ninja academy." 'Just great another member for the Sasuke Uchiha fan club.'

"And have you always been on the same team?"

"Well there were a few years where we were separated."

"Why was that?"

"If you're so interested in me maybe you should ask me yourself, instead of asking the dobe," Sasuke said coming up behind them.

Naruto jumped and Hikari simply started at Sasuke.

"Teme, don't sneak up on us like that," Naruto said angrily.

Sasuke smirked at that and turned to Hikari, "How much training do you have?"

"More than enough to kick your ass," she answered confidently.

'Maybe she not another fan,' Naruto thought to himself.

"Well you certainly are sure of yourself."

Naruto was getting a kick out of all of this. "Wow Sasuke looks like you have some more competition," Naruto laughed.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said excitedly as she entered the training grounds.

Sasuke had to suppress a groan at the sound of Sakura's arrival and Naruto just rolled his eyes. Naruto had gotten over the crush he had on Sakura a few years ago.

"Hello Hikari, I hope you didn't have to wait to long by yourself," Sakura said, she was standing as close as humanly possible to Sasuke without touching him.

"No I didn't wait that long, Naruto showed up shortly after I did," she explained.

"That's nice. So what do you think of Konoha so far?"

"It's nice."

"Yes at the moment it is very peaceful here. There isn't really much to do for entertainment though. We do have a few good stores though that the theatre has some good movies playing right now. It's not always this peaceful you," Sakura ranted.

Hikari realized just then how long today was going to be. Sakura was even worse than Naruto. Most of what she had just said Hikari didn't even care about.

"Hay after we're done training do you want to go shopping with me?" Sakura asked.

"Thanks but I was planning on spending a quiet night relaxing. I haven't really had much time to do that yet. Sorry, maybe another time."

"Yeah you can just give me a shout when you want to go out," Sakura said with a bright smile.

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The research was going well. At the moment he was even ahead of schedule. The most surprising part was that he hadn't been caught in over a month. He tried not to think about it too much though he didn't want to curse his good fortune.

It was probably about time for him to head home. He would come again tomorrow to continue.

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A few hours found team seven and Hikari still waiting for their sensei to show up. Now while team seven was used to it by now, Hikari was beginning to become restless. At the moment Sasuke and Naruto were sparing with each other and Sakura was trying to get Hikari to have a proper conversation.

Hikari was about to go insane. Every time she tried to make an effort she found herself bored. All Sakura could talk about was Sasuke and how great he was. It was giving her a headache.

"Hey there kids, is everyone playing nicely?" Kakashi asked, marking his arrival.

"What the hell took you so long?" Hikari demanded.

"Well it appears some enemy ninjas used a powerful ninjutsu on my house so that when I awoke I thought it was still night so I went back to sleep," Kakashi explained.

"And you didn't use your sharingan why?" Sasuke asked plainly.

There was silence from Kakashi for a few moments after that comment. "Well, what do you say we get started? Since Naruto and Sasuke already fought we'll give them a breather. Sakura, Hikari lets see what you can do," Kakashi said and pulled out his book.

"Shouldn't you be watching us then?" Hikari asked.

"Don't worry I am," Kakashi said and settled in.

Hikari sighed and got ready to fight. She got right into it. She started off by throwing a kunai in Sakura's direction. She wanted to get an idea of what Sakura's reflexes were like. Sakura countered by dodging and slamming her fists into the ground causing an earthquake.

"Damn it, I can't believe Aunt Tsunade taught you that!" Hikari yelled as she jumped out of the way.

The fight continued on like that for the next ten minutes. Long range attacks just weren't working against Sakura, and with all of the earthquakes Hikari was unable to get close enough for hand to hand combat. 'If only there was a way to distract her," Hikari though and then it hit her. She moved into position and threw two shuriken. They sailed past Sakura and towards Sasuke who wasn't paying attention.

"Sasuke-kun, watch out!" Sakura yelled.

That was the opening Hikari had been waiting for. She was in front of Sakura quickly and attacking her. Now that Hikari was in her element the fight was over in under a minute. In the end Sakura had he back against a tree and Hikari was hold a kunai at her throat.

"Discipline," Hikari said, "You can't allow yourself to be distracted by your teammates, especially when they can take care of themselves."

Sakura started at Hikari in shock. She was about to respond to that comment when Kakashi spoke.

"Naruto are you ready now?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed and jumped up roaring to go.

"Hikari, do you want to catch your breath first?"

"I'm fine, but I still can't believe your reading that," Hikari said in disgust, pointing at Icha Icha Paradise. "I swear that pervert's work follows me everywhere."

"You're familiar with ero-senin's work?" Naruto asked in shock.

"Sadly yes," Hikari answered, "Now let's go."

"Don't get overconfident yet," Naruto said and came at her.

Things weren't looking good for this fight. Naruto sure was a complete idiot, but this idiot could fight. Hikari wasn't doing too badly though because she was familiar with many of his moves. If she didn't do something soon she would lose this fight. However if there was one thing she had learnt it was that losing was not an option. She leapt up into a near by tree and disappeared out of Naruto's line of sight. Once there she created a substitution and sent it out. Naruto quickly went in for the attack. With a diversion created, Hikari jumped out and landed behind Naruto just as he finished off the decoy. After realizing he had been tricked he rounded on Hikari and preformed his shadow clone jutsu. Suddenly Hikari found herself surrounded by twelve Narutos and she didn't know which one was the real one. Naruto and all of his shadow clones dove at her at the same time. Suddenly, Hikari had an idea. Before they could attack her she reached into the bag on her back and pulled out her favorite weapon, a ball and chain with spikes. She spun it around in a circle above her head. It hit each Naruto in turn. After hitting four on the shadow clones the real Naruto was hit and he went flying. Hikari abandoned the other clones and rushed over to where Naruto lay. There she pinned him down by putting her foot down on his chest.

"Found you," she said looking down at him. "I guess that means I win," after saying that she began to walk away.

"Now wait a minute———," Naruto began.

"No she's right. Now it's my turn," Sasuke said and got up.

"No I think I've seen enough for today," Kakashi said as he halted Sasuke. "You can fight her tomorrow."

"What do you mean you've seen enough?" Hikari yelled. "You've had your nose in that book this entire time. You haven't seen anything."

"Don't question my actions Hikari," Kakashi stated, "I said I've seen enough so I've seen enough. We will pick up where we left off tomorrow. That's when Sasuke and Hikari will fight," Kakashi explained before leaving.

Sasuke had begun to pack up his things when Sakura approached him.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, would you like to walk home with me?" she practically begged.

"No," Sasuke answered coldly and Sakura looked crestfallen. "We live in two different directions so there would be no point."

"Oh yeah, I guess your right." Sakura said. She was mentally hitting herself for asking such a stupid question.

Once Sasuke left Sakura followed shortly after, leaving only Naruto and Hikari.

"You're pretty good you know," Naruto said to her.

"You're not bad yourself," she replied.

"I can't believe you beat Sakura so easily though, I mean she's never been the best ninja but she's really smart. Still you managed to trick her like it was nothing."

"That was her own fault, all morning all she could talk about was Sasuke. It was quite annoying really. What is she, part of some sort of Sasuke fan club?" Hikari asked.

"Actually she is," Naruto laughed.

Hikari had to laugh at that as well. "How many fans does this guy have?"

"A fair amount, most of the girls out age are in it," Naruto explained.

They finished packing up their weapons and walked towards the edge of the training grounds.

"So where are you off to now?" Naruto asked.

"Lunch at Ichiraku Ramen, you coming?" she asked. 'Maybe he's not so bad. At least he's not holding a grudge against me.'

"Sure," Naruto said, "You know even though you're good, you still didn't beat me."

"You know you're right, you probably would have beaten me."

They reached their destination and placed their orders.

"So that's a pretty nice weapon you have. Where'd you get it?" he asked.

Hikari knew that he was referring to her ball and chain. "I got it as a gift from one of my Uncles," she told him.

"Tsunade-baba has brothers?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"Tsunade-baba?" Hikari laughed, "And she gets mad when I call her Aunt Tsunade. She says it makes her sound old. I wonder what she'd do to you if she heard you call her that."

"Oh she knows she's heard me say it before. She hates it, even hit me for it a few times. So she really has brothers?"

"No she doesn't have any brothers, they're more like surrogate Uncles to me," she explained.

"I see, well I understand that completely," Naruto said and his mood almost seemed to darken slightly.

"Naruto!" a voice yelled.

Both Naruto and Hikari turned to see a young man wearing black pants, a light grey shirt, and a green vest. He was tall and fairly good looking with his hair tied in a high ponytail. He was walking over to them.

"Hi Shikamaru, how are you?" Naruto asked brightly.

"Not bad, look we're having a party tomorrow night, for Chouji's eighteenth birthday, are you going to be there?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah sure, where is it?"

"We're having the party at my house at around seven." It was then that he realized that Hikari was looking at him. "Who's this?" he asked Naruto.

"This is Hikari, the Hokage's niece," Naruto explained.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Shikamaru Nara," he said, "You know, I stopped by to invite Kiba and he mentioned you."

"Really?" Hikari asked surprised, "What did he say?"

"Well he just mentioned that since you were stay with Hinata that she might not be able to come to the party," he explained. "Speaking of which I'm sure Chouji wouldn't mind if you came, if you want to come that is."

Hikari glanced over at Naruto who gave her an encouraging nod. "Sure why not," Hikari said with a smile.

"Great you can meet everyone then. Well," Shikamaru said turning towards Naruto, "I have to get going now, and I'm supposed to ask Sasuke to come. It's so troublesome it's not like he's going to come anyway."

"Have fun with that Shikamaru," Naruto said and waved to him.

"How many people do you think will be there?" Hikari asked.

"Well since Sasuke won't come there will be twelve including the two of us," Naruto answered.

'_Well that's not too bad,' _she thought to herself, _'it's not too many people.'_

"You might want to avoid Ino though," Naruto suggested.

"Who's that and why should I avoid them?"

"Ino is friends and rival with Sakura. Basically they fight over Sasuke's affections."

"Well Sasuke doesn't seem to be too interested in Sakura," Hikari stated.

"Oh he's not interested in Ino either, actually Sasuke's not interested in anyone as far as I know."

Hikari laughed, "Chasing the unattainable huh?"

"Yeah that's the case. Well I have to get going I'll see you tomorrow okay?"

"Yeah see you tomorrow," Hikari said with a smile.

"Bye and remember don't show up early tomorrow."

"Thanks I'll remember that, bye," she waved and watched Naruto disappear from sight.

Hikari had really enjoyed the later part of the day so far. She couldn't remember that last time she had laughed so much. Once you got past his almost constant talking, Naruto was the kind of person that just made you want to smile when you were with them. Still Hikari was familiar with people like that. It usually meant that they had some sort of dark secret, and Hikari wanted to know what it was.

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Neji had just received the invitation. He hadn't really wanted to attend the party but now it looked like he didn't have a choice. Hinata had been invited as well so now his Uncle was making him go. It wasn't as if she needed the protection and Hinata had tried to tell her Father that. The man just wanted to make his life a living hell. It wasn't that he had anything against Chouji he just didn't feel like socializing.

Neji walked up to the main house, Hinata and Hikari wanted to go for a walk in the forest outside the village and he had to accompany them. He knocked and Hinata answered the door.

"Neji nii-san please come in, Hikari just went to grab her bag and then we can go," Hinata explained, she had a back pack on.

Neji held out his hand as an offer to carry it. Hinata hesitated for a second before handing it over. Neji was shouldering the pack as Hikari came down the stairs.

They headed out and as soon as they were out of sight of the house Hinata turned to Neji.

"Neji nii-san I can take the bag now if you like," Hinata offered shyly.

Neji looked at his cousin thoughtfully. "Hinata-sama you know I don't mind doing things for you as long as I'm not forced."

"But Neji nii-san really it's okay, I'll carry it."

"Don't worry about it," Neji said offhandedly and continued walking.

"You guys are both going to that party tomorrow night right?" Hikari asked them.

"Yeah I heard your coming too right?" Hinata said.

"Yeah, that guy Shikamaru invited me when I was with Naruto."

I'm jut surprised that he was actually going around and taking care of all the invites," Neji said. _'I might as well participate in a conversation with them or the day will prove to be very boring,' _he thought to himself.

"What do you mean?" Hikari questioned.

"Shikamaru's the laziest ninja in Konoha. It's true that he's also a genius but he's still lazy," Neji explained.

"He was also the first out of all of us to become Chuunin, even though he didn't even win his match. He forfeited it.," Hinata added.

"Who else do you think with be there," Hikari asked.

"Well of course Shino and Kiba will be there but you've already met them. Let's see who haven't you met yet?" Hinata thought out loud

"Well there's Asuma's team, "Neji answered.

"Well them that would be Ino and Chouji then."

"Naruto already told me a little bit about Ino, but I don't know anything about Chouji other than it's his eighteenth birthday tomorrow."

"Well Chouji is Shikamaru's best friend. He's also very kind to others. That why Shikamaru invited you, he knows Chouji won't mind," Hinata explained. "You haven't met the rest of Neji nii-san's team either, Tenten and Lee."

"What are they like," she asked turning to Neji.

"Tenten's okay, she's the weapons specialist on our team." Neji told her.

"That mean's you'll most likely get along with her," Hinata joked.

"And what about Lee?"

"I'd rather not talk about him," Neji simply stated.

"Aww come on Neji nii-san, tell Hikari about Lee," Hinata said, "I'm sure she would love to meet him too."

Neji hesitantly complied, "Fine," he sighed. "Lee's one of a kind. He's madly in love with Sakura, but she doesn't return his affections. He's unable to use most chakra but is very talented with taijutsu, he's also very enthusiastic."

"What does he look like," Hikari wondered out loud. She actually saw Neji shudder at the thought.

"When you see him you'll know he's impossible to miss. He has a horrible bowl cut, fuzzy eyebrows, and wears a green unitard."

After hearing that Hikari starting laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe. After a minute or two she actually started hyperventilating from laughing so hard. This sent both Hinata and Neji into a panic.

"Should we give her mouth to mouth?" Hinata asked urgently.

"No you don't do that unless they stop breathing."

"Then what do we do?"

"I don't know!" he yelled.

Now Hikari had had laughing fits like this before. She knew that she would be fine. The worst that could possibly happen was that she could pass out from laughing so hard. However Hinata and Neji weren't helping matters, seeing them panic like this was making her laugh even more. She collapsed to her knees because she could no longer stand up right.

"Maybe one of us should go get help," Hinata suggested.

"Right, I'm faster, I'll go," Neji offered.

Before he could take off Hikari reached out and grabbed onto his ankle. She shook her head no. Hinata dropped to her knees beside Hikari. She put her hands on Hikari's shoulders until she was able to recover a bit.

"I'm sorry," she breathed. "I didn't mean to worry you guys, I always get like that when I laugh to hard," she explained.

"Well come on let's get moving then," Neji said brushing the incident off like it was nothing.

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After finishing lunch with Hikari, Naruto had gone home to put his stuff away and to take a shower. For some reason he couldn't understand it bugged him to know that Sasuke wasn't going to come to the party. That guy really needed to get out more. Naruto finally decided to pay Sasuke a visit. He left his apartment and began to make his way to Sasuke's place. _'Even after all this time this place still gives me the creeps,' _Naruto thought to himself.

He knocked on the door and when no answer came after thirty seconds he began to know continually. After knocking like that for two minutes Sasuke opened the door.

"What do you want dobe?" Sasuke asked sounding only mildly annoyed.

"Can I come in?" Naruto answered with his own question.

"Whatever," he said and stepped aside. Sasuke led the way to the sitting room. He sat in a large black leather arm chair while Naruto chose to sit on the matching couch. "Now what is it you wanted?"

"Are you coming to Chouji's party?" he asked getting straight to the point.

"No, you should know that, why?"

"Well I think you should come. I mean it's the least you can do. He did put his life on the line for you that time."

"I never asked him or anyone else to," Sasuke remarked.

"Well I'm not leaving until you agree to come," Naruto said stubbornly.

"I said I'm not going."

"Come on please!" Naruto begged.

"No."

"I'll drag you there kicking and screaming if I have to," Naruto said.

"Now where have I heard that before?" Sasuke mocked.

"This time I won't back down, and I won't lose to you," he stated.

Now Sasuke knew they were both stubborn but Naruto was more so. There was no way he was going get rid of Naruto. Naruto had grown a lot since they were younger, he was now over six feet and every muscular, while Sasuke was shorted and slimmer. Even if he did manage to throw him out Naruto would probably stake out his house.

Sasuke sighed, "Fine, I'll go."

"What? Really, sweet, well I guess I'll leave then, see you tomorrow," Naruto said and took off before Sasuke could say anything else.

Sasuke was actually almost happy that Naruto had stopped by. He didn't know what was wrong with him lately. He didn't even feel that upset about being force to go to Chouji's party.

Naruto was also feeling much better now with the knowledge that Sasuke was coming. He had nothing better to do right now so he decided to stop by and see is favorite teacher, Iruka-sensei.

-------------------------------------------

"Why don't we stop here?" Hikari suggested.

They had reached a small peaceful clearing right next to a small lake.

"It seems like a good place to stop and eat," Hinata said. She took the bag back from Neji and opened it up. Inside there was a large blanket, three sandwiches, an apple pie, and three bottles of

Hinata spread the blanket on the ground, and everyone sat down to eat.

"So we had to walk all the way out here for a picnic?" Neji asked.

"No," Hikari answered. "We'll probably go swimming too."

"Exactly that lake is perfect to swim in," Hinata said.

"Haven't you ever heard that swimming less than an hour after eating is a bad idea?" Neji asked.

"That's bullshit, I had a lake that was about five minutes away from my house, and I was there all the time," Hikari explained.

"All it takes is one time," he said.

"Come on what are the chances of all three of us getting cramps," Hikari countered.

"I don't remember saying that I was going swimming," he said.

"I didn't say you were either, but are you telling me that you're just going to sit and watch if one of us gets a cramp?"

"Well no, of course not."

"Then we have nothing to worry about, do we," Hikari said smugly.

Neji just turned his head away. He hated the fact that she was right.

"Neji nii-san how come you're not coming swimming with us?" Hinata asked timidly.

"Because I didn't know you planned on going swimming, if I knew then I would've brought my swimming trunks," he answered.

"I'm sorry Neji nii-san, I told Father to tell you, but I guess he didn't."

_'What else is new?'_ he thought. "It's okay Hinata-sama it's not your fault."

The rest of the meal spent talking about the party tomorrow night. At one point Hikari had asked if they thought someone would bring alcohol. Neji had told her that someone probably would but it wouldn't come out until after Lee left. When she asked why he had Hinata had told her about Lee's drunken fist, and they had a laugh over that. After they were done eating the girl's took Hikari's bag and went behind a group of tree to get changed.

"I'm going to get him in the lake," Hikari stated.

"What are you going to do?" Hinata asked apprehensively.

"You'll see, just make sure your farther away from me than he is."

"I don't like the sounds of this," Hinata said.

"Oh don't worry about it. It'll be good for him he just needs to cut loose once in a while."

Hinata came out holding he towel wearing a one piece lavender bathing suit. Hikari was right behind her carrying her bag with her towel wrapped around her torso. The first thing Neji noticed about her was the fact that she still had her wrist cuffs on. Hinata went right into the lake and waded out until she could no longer touch the bottom.

"Are you coming in Hikari?" Hinata called, "The water's great."

"Be right there!" she called back. Hikari let loose her towel and allowed it to pool around her feet. She was wearing a simple two piece black bikini. She walked over to a tree that had branches that extended far out over the lake. She jumped up into the tree and made her way up. When she was about twenty feet up, there was one branch that went all the way out to the middle of the lake. She made her to the edge and swan dived off. Both Hinata and Neji held their breath. What Hikari was doing was dangerous. Her body sliced through the water and she didn't surface for another thirty seconds. When she did resurface she was on the other side of the lake. Hinata swam over to where Hikari was.

"You scared me," she told her.

Hikari just smiled. "I told you when it comes to the water I'm practically a fish. Now stay here, I'm going to swim closer to him."

Hinata was about to try and talk her out of it but she was already swimming away. Hikari swam out to a point in the lake where there was now way for her to touch the ground. She looked back at Hinata with a secret smile on her face, before it twisted into a grimace of pain and she went under.

Neji was watching the two of them from the bank when he was Hikari go under. She came up a few moments later flailing her arm only to go under once more. _'Oh no she's drowning,' _was Neji's only though as he stripped off his shirt and went into the lake. Neji quickly swam out to where she was and scooped her up into his arms before returning to where he could stand up. Hikari was clinging on to his neck and coughing up so much water that he eyes were watering.

Neji turned around to face Hinata who seemed to be frozen in place. "Hinata-sama!" he called. "You should get out of the water for now!"

Hinata began to move to comply with Neji's request, after that she couldn't tell if Hikari was faking it of not. Now was not the time to talk about it though. That would just cause him to get angry with them both. Hinata would ask her about it when they were alone.

Neji carried Hikari out of the lake and placed her down on the blanket, the then went to get her towel for her. Hinata came out of the water and got her own towel before sitting down next to Hikari.

"Are you okay?" Neji asked when he came back. "Yes, thank-you, you saved me."

"I told you not to go in yet," he pointed out.

Hikari dropped her eyes away from his gaze. "You were right, I'm sorry."

"Forget about it just take it easy for awhile now."

"Okay."

"Well I guess we could sun tan for the rest of the hour, I'm not ready to go home yet," Hinata said. "Neji nii-san why don't you join us this time, you're already wet."

Neji looked like he was going to refuse for a moment, "Sure why not," he said as an after thought.

Hinata smiled and both she and Hikari reclined on the blanket. They spent the next hour sun tanning in silence, Neji and Hikari both actually dozed off for awhile near the end. Hinata woke then both up once the hour was up.

"You guys ready?" she asked.

"Yeah let's go," Hikari said enthusiastically.

Hikari and Hinata were the first ones in the water, Neji it seemed, would take a little more coaxing.

"What's taking you so long?" Hikari asked him. She turned around and took a good look at him. He was standing on the bank watching them again. His hair was not tied back at the moment so it had dried quickly, he still had his shirt off and Hikari noticed that he had a very nice chest. He wasn't scrawny but nicely toned with a washboard stomach. "I bet you just don't want that perfect hair of yours to get wet again," she taunted.

"Are you challenging me?" she asked with a small smirk.

"Why yes I am. Do you accept?"

"Name you're terms."

"No jutsus just raw strength."

"It that all?" he asked.

"That's all."

This time a more prominent smirk was on his face, "You're on," he said and entered the lake making sure that his head stayed above water.

Hikari dove straight at him and he easily side stepped her. Next she went under water and tried to attack him from behind, again he avoided her. Hinata was watching all of this in amusement. Maybe Hikari was right and all Neji needed was to cut loose. He did seem to be having fun he was even on the verge of having a real smile on his face. She knew there was no way Hikari could win this alone. Even without using and jutsus Neji could still see all of her attacks. Hinata decided Hikari could use some help. The next time Hikari was in front of him Hinata moved in from behind. Neji turned to face her and that's when Hikari dove under water and took out his legs while Hinata tackled him from in front. All three of them went under and when they came back up they were all laughing.

"Looks like we win," Hikari declared.

"That's not fair, you cheated, and you had help."

"You never said I couldn't have help," Hikari countered.

"Oh yeah, well, take this then," Neji said and splashed her.

Hikari's jaw dropped in shock before she returned fire. The next thing that knew everyone was involved. They were splashing a dunking each other. Usually Hikari ended up being the one dunked but occasionally either she and Neji or she and Hinata would go for the other. In the end a good time was had by all. The fooled around until the sun began to set and the lake water started to cool off.

"We should get going now, at this rate it'll be dark way before we get home," Neji said.

"Yeah let's get going," Hikari said and walked towards their things. She and Hinata dried off and she tossed another towel from her bag to Neji.

Neji caught it in surprise, "I was going to use it on my hair, but you need it more than I do," she explained.

"Umm, thank-you," he said and toweled off.

-------------------------------------------

When they got back Hiashi Hyuuga was standing on the front steps wait for them. "What took you so long to return?" he asked.

"We got a little side tracked," Hinata explained.

"Well its late, you girls should get to bed," he said.

"Yes sir, good night," Hikari said and she and Hinata headed inside.

They were going up the stairs when they heard the front door open and shut. The last think Hikari heard before shutting her door was Hiashi Hyuuga telling Neji that he wanted a word with him. As she was trying to fall asleep she thought about how cold his voice had sounded when he had addressed Neji and she was filled with a feeling of dread as she slipped into a fitful sleep.

-------------------------------------------

Neji had received a thorough tongue lashing after his Uncle has sent the girls up to bed. He had known it would happen of course. He had been expecting much worse, but he was grateful that the tongue lashing was all he had gotten. Yet it didn't bother him all that much. He had had fun today with Hikari and his cousin, _really_ had fun, which was rare. Now he was even sort of looking forward to the party tomorrow night because Hikari would be there too. Her persistence reminded him of Naruto as did her confidence. However her silence reminded him of Sasuke.

He was almost sure she was hiding something about her past, even though they hadn't talked too much. That was another thing that reminded him of Sasuke. There was one big difference though, if his theory was correct. The difference was that while Sasuke closed himself off from others in order deal with is problems, Hikari was outgoing and down right friendly. Still that seemed to be an act too. When she laughed and when she smiled they rarely reached her eyes. When she had had that laughing fit today on the forest floor was the first time he had seen her eyes laughing as well. That had been his first clue that she had a secret. His second clue had been those wrist cuffs she wore. They cover a little over half of her lower arm, and she hadn't taken them off at all while they were swimming. Was she hiding something under them, and if she was, did he really want to know what it was? These thoughts plagued his already tried mind. He really had to get to sleep though, as punishment his Uncle was making him clean the entire main house every day for a week before he could do anything else.

He pushed those horrible thoughts to the back of his mind as he too drifted into an uneasy sleep.

-------------------------------------------

Hikari slept in late the next day, all of the swimming had tired her out. When she did wake up it was already eleven thirty. She wasn't too worried though since she now knew that Kakashi would be late. Still she hurried in her morning routine. When she got to the training grounds everyone else was already there.

"You're late," Sasuke said coldly.

"It doesn't matter though, Kakashi isn't even here yet," Hikari said, she wasn't intimidated by Sasuke at all.

"You should still be here on time though," Sakura pointed out, taking Sasuke's side.

"Give her a break you guys, everyone had their off days," Naruto said coming to her defense.

"Whatever," was Sasuke only reply.

"So Sasuke-kun, are you going to Chouji's party tonight?" Sakura asked.

"I have nothing better to do," he answered.

"Speaking of tonight, who's in charge of drinks tonight?" Naruto asked.

Sakura sighed, "Shino and Tenten have drink duty tonight," she answered.

Naruto laughed at that and Sasuke only smirked.

"I guess that means it's your turn to get Lee out as quickly as possible tonight, right?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Sakura answered softly.

"I'm lost," Hikari said confused.

"Let me explain then," Naruto said. "Everyone that is eighteen and older splits up the duties. Right now at each party two are responsible for getting enough drinks for everyone while a third person is responsible for getting Lee out. After tonight though Chouji will join the team," he explained.

"Well what about Neji, he's eighteen."

"He doesn't have to bring drinks because he could never get away with it, the Hyuuga's all have eyes in the back of they're heads."

"Right," Hikari said in disbelief. "So this is all because of Lee's drunken fist?" she asked.

"How do you know about that?" Sakura asked.

"Hinata and Neji told me about it yesterday," she said.

"Is everyone well rested?" Kakashi asked popping out of nowhere.

"Wow Kakashi-sensei, this must be a new record for you," Naruto said. "You're less than half an hour late."

"Funny," Kakashi said blandly, "Well come on you two, I don't want to waste any time today."

Hikari grabbed her bad and put it on as she and Sasuke too their positions, and the fight commenced.

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She was going to end this once and for all this time. She had had enough of this so called research. It was nothing more than spying on unsuspecting victims in her eyes. Tsunade was furious as she made her way towards the women's bath house. One of the villagers had seen Jiraiya down there just a little while ago and had come to inform her. Tsunade knew he would still be there.

Sure enough when she rounded the corner there was Jiraiya crouching in front of a peep hole. She walked over to him and abruptly seized him by the ear and hauled him off towards the Hokage tower, yelling at him the whole way.

-------------------------------------------

This was frustrating Sasuke was at a complete loss Hikari was anticipating all of his attacks. She hadn't even flinched when he began to use his sharingan. This fight was going nowhere, not only was she able to counter all of his attacks but thanks to the sharingan he was able to counter all of his attacks as well. _'It's time to break out the big guns,' _he thought as he got ready to perform the Chidori. Then the fight was interrupted in the form of Tsunade and Jiraiya.

Hikari heard them coming before she even saw them.

"You are never to go near there again, do you understand me!" Tsunade yelled.

"How else am I supposed to get me research done?"

Hikari stopped where she was and turned in their direction, "Hey Uncle Jiraiya, what did you do this time?" she yelled.

Naruto's jaw dropped after that statement, Kakashi's eyebrow raised in surprise, Sakura sweat dropped, and Sasuke had to struggle to keep his face blank.

"He was peeping in on the women in the bathhouse again," Tsunade explained.

"Well, you should patch up the hole then," Jiraiya countered.

"We do, you just keep making new ones!" she yelled. She still had now relinquished her hold on his ear. "I'm sorry Hikari but I really much deal with him right now. Why don't you drop by my office in about an hour? I should be done with him by then."

"Okay bye Uncle Perv!" Hikari called and turned back to Kakashi and the others.

Naruto was the fist to recover his voice, "Uncle Jiraiya?"

"I told you I had a couple of surrogate Uncles."

"Very well, I suppose we can call today's fight a draw," Kakashi said. "Take tomorrow off somehow I think you'll all need it."

"Sweet a holiday!" Naruto cheered.

Hikari smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm and they all headed home. Hikari desperately wanted a shower before going to see Aunt Tsunade and Uncle Jiraiya.

AN- This chapter is a lot longer than the others because I got a little carried away, sorry. For Hikari's laughing fit I guess the best way to explain it would be she doesn't make a sound when she laughs it's more like a squeak when ever she inhales. It may sound hard to believe that I person could pass out just from laughing but believe me its possible, I should know because that's how I am. Next Chapter is called Don't Kiss and Tell, so the action will be starting. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW


	4. Chapter Four: Don't Kiss and Tell

**Chapter Four: Don't Kiss and Tell**

Tsunade had just finished chewing Jiraiya out; she was now keeping in her office until Hikari could arrive. She knew that Jiraiya had taught Hikari a few things over the years and she had no problem with that.

Jiraiya was confused, he couldn't figure out what Hikari was doing in Konoha and why she was with Kakashi's team today.

"Tsunade, what is she doing here?" he asked.

"Hikari? My sister sent her here to stay for awhile."

"What was she doing at the training grounds with team seven today?"

"She wants to become a certified ninja so I asked Kakashi to tutor her a bit. With any luck she can achieve Genin in just a short time."

"How long is she here for?"

"I'm not sure about that yet. I hope to find out soon though, because if it's only for a short time I may just have her continue staying with the Hyuugas."

"Well if she has to stay for a long period of time she could always ———."

"No!" Tsunade said cutting him off.

"But you didn't even let me ———," he tried again.

"Just, no!"

"Don't you trust me?"

Tsunade gave Jiraiya a look that said, 'do you really want me to answer that?"

"Never mind," he said. "Are you sure it's a good idea for her to become a shinobi?" Jiraiya said changing the subject.

"I don't really see what harm it could do. She is almost of age after all and able to make her own choices."

Before Jiraiya could say any more of the matter Hikari came bursting into the room.

"Hey Uncle Perv when did you come back to Konoha?" she asked and sat down beside him.

Jiraiya's eye twitched at the old nickname, "A few weeks ago, the girls of Konoha have always been a great source of inspiration in the past."

That comment made both women twitch at the thought of what Jiraiya considered inspiration. As the two made small talk, Tsunade poured a glass of water for Hikari while pouring a small glass of Sake for Jiraiya and a much larger glass for herself.

"Hikari for the remainder of your stay how would you like to ———."

"No," she put simply.

"How do you guys do that?" Jiraiya demanded.

"We've known you too long," Tsunade explained. "So Hikari how is the training with Kakashi is going?" she asked.

Hikari took a sip of her water before answering, "He hasn't really taught me anything yet. Right now he seems to just be testing my skills, yesterday he had me fight both Sakura and Naruto, then today when I was fighting Sasuke I was distracted by the two of you."

"How did those go?" Jiraiya asked.

"Sakura was too easy once I got close to her. Which by the way was the hardest part since _somebody _taught her how to create miniature earthquakes," she said glared at Tsunade.

"I could teach you that as well if you like," Tsunade offered.

"That's alright I think I can manage on my own Aunt Tsunade."

"What about your fight with Naruto?" Jiraiya prompted.

"It went well, I was declared the winner after I pinned him. Had it been a real fight I probably would've lost though. Do you enjoy pitting your students against each other Uncle Perv?"

Jiraiya looked surprised, "How did you know Naruto was my student?"

"Naruto mentioned it."

"And what about your fight with the Uchiha?" Tsunade asked. She was drinking too much too fast and her speech was quickly becoming slurred.

"I held my own. We didn't get to finish though."

"I see. You know Hikari I love you dear, you my only niece. I wish I could've seen you more when you were growing up. I'm going to make it all up to you now. You've grown into a fine young woman even after all that you've been through. I know that you're going to make a fine ninja." Tsunade got up and staggered over to where Hikari sat and pulled her into a tight hug. "I'll be her for you if you ever need me."

Hikari didn't know what to do. She had never seen her Aunt like this before and the sight was bringing back bad memories. She had to hold back tears when he Aunt released her.

"I should get going now, I've been invited to Chouji's party tonight and I should get ready soon," she said managing to keep her voice even.

"Alright," Tsunade said, "Have fun don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Bye Aunt Tsunade."

"Please don't call me _Aunt_ Tsunade, it makes me feel, _Old," _she whined.

"Whatever you say, and Uncle Perv you had better come visit me before you take off again," she said brightly. "Oh and stay out of trouble," she added as an after thought before exiting the room.

Jiraiya had noticed the unshed tears in her eyes, '_I wonder what brought that on?' _he thought. "Tsunade, once again are you sure letting her become a shinobi is wise?" he asked turning to face her new position in Hikari's old seat, only to find her slumped over her desk in a drunken stupor. He decided it would be best not to disturb her as he got up and left as well.

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Hikari couldn't go back to her room right away. She couldn't let Hinata, or anyone else for that matter, see her like this. So instead she went up to Mt. Hokage. By the time she got there the tears were flowing freely down her face. How could something so small trigger so many bad memories?

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_Flash Back_

_A ten year old Hikari is awake in her bed. She can hear her Mother and Aki out in the sitting room, they're drinking again. Hikari tries to fall asleep. Aki doesn't anything to her unless he knows she's awake. He likes to see the fear in her eyes. She closes her eyes and pretends she's somewhere else. It doesn't work though as she hears Aki making his way to her room. The door opens and she squeezes her eyes tightly shut, she tries to pretend she's asleep. He knows better though as he clamps a hand over he mouth so that she can't scream. _

_As she opens her eyes he speaks, "If you try to scream of tell your mom about this, I'll kill you both."_

_That all he says, that's all he ever says to her on nights like this._

_He then proceeds to peel her clothes off of her; Hikari is paralyzed with fear and unable to do anything against him._

_End Flash Back_

Hikari stays up in the mountain for two hours until all of her tears have dried up and her eyes are no longer red. It's now five o'clock and she really will have to get ready soon. Fist she wants something to eat, she doesn't want to be drinking on an empty stomach.

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The Kazekage had arrived about an hour ago with his siblings. They were now getting settled into the room that had been reserved for them at the Inn. Their first stop had been the Hokage tower only to be told that she was unavailable and would see them tomorrow. After they had run into Naruto and he and Gaara had talked a bit before heading to the Inn.

While Gaara and Temari were unpacking in their room Kankuro was talking on the phone in his.

"I'm sorry it took so long for us to come back but I couldn't come up with a valid excuse…Can I come over tonight?... There's a party and am not invited…Fine…Well can I come over right now then?... Alright I'll see you in a bit then." Kankuro hung up the phone and headed over to Gaara's room. He knocked and waited for the door to open.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm heading out for awhile, I'll be back before seven." He informed his brother.

"Whatever," was the only reply her got. Gaara still wasn't one to waste words.

Kankuro left after that and hurried over to Kiba's place, it had been so long since he had seen his boyfriend and he didn't want to waste any time.

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Kiba heard him coming and had the door open before Kankuro even had a chance to knock. He pulled him inside, slammed the door, and pinned him to it kissing him forcefully.

"Miss me that much did you?" Kankuro asked pulling away.

"Shut-up and get those clothes off," Kiba barked and began to tear at his own clothes.

All of their clothes formed a trail to Kiba's room; he didn't even pause to close the door before pushing Kankuro onto the bed and pouncing on him.

It had been months and Kankuro wanted to be in control this time around, before Kiba even had time to react Kankuro had him on his back tied to the bed with chakra strings reserved only for his puppets and times like this.

Kankuro wasn't about to waste precious time looking around the room for lube so instead he just spit on his hand covering his fingers in saliva. He quickly inserted the first finger barely waiting before adding a second. He scissored his fingers stretching Kiba to accommodate something much large. Spitting once again into his other hand he began to slick his member as he added a third finger.

"Hurry the fuck up already," Kiba demanded impatiently.

"You want it? You got it." Kankuro grunted out as he replaced his fingers with his cock. He paused longer enough to let Kiba adjust to the intrusion. It had been a few months after all. Yet that tight passage felt heavenly. As soon as he was able he began to move inside him. As he felt himself nearing the edge he reached down and began to stroke Kiba to completion as well. Moments later the two of them came screaming each other's names.

Kankuro released Kiba and lay beside him as they waited to get their second wind. The next time wouldn't be so frenzied.

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Later that night Hikari, Hinata and Neji made their way over to Shikamaru's place. When they go there in was already seven-thirty, they could hear the music pounding from inside as the party was already in full swing.

"Maybe I should just head back," Hikari suggested nervously.

"Come on Hikari, it'll be fun," Hinata said.

"I don't want to impose on anyone there though."

"Tough you said you would come so now you have to be there," Neji said grabbing her hand and dragging her in with Hinata trailing behind. He was not about to let her back out, he wanted her to be there too after all. Even though he would never say it out loud.

They went in and took their shoes off at the door. Neji was still holding Hikari's hand as he dragged her into the sitting room where everyone was gathered. Naruto caught sight of her and Neji reluctantly released her so that Naruto could bring her to the centre of the room.

"Hey everyone!" he said loudly and they all turning to look at him. "This is Hikari, Tsunade's niece," he announced, "Hikari this is; Tenten, Lee, Ino and Chouji."

With the ice broken, so to speak, the party continued. Hikari took Naruto's advice and did her best to avoid Ino and Sakura. Instead she stuck close to Neji, for most of the part. She found it rather easy to avoid then because they were too bust fighting and fawning over Sasuke to notice her. Sasuke on the other hand seemed just as anxious to get away as they were to get closer. Around eight o'clock Kiba finally made his entrance.

"Sorry I'm late guy, I got a little tied up," he said with a slight blush.

By nine o'clock things were starting to calm down and it was time for Lee to go.

"Hey Lee," Sakura said sweetly after receiving the sign from Shikamaru."

"Yes Sakura-chan?" _'This is wonderful, all my hard work as finally paid off. My angel is speaking to me.'_

"I'm starting to get tired, would you like to walk me home?"

"Of course Sakura's it would be my pleasure to walk an angel such as yourself home. But what kind of man would I be if I allowed you to walk in suck a tired state. Here come into my arms and let me carry you!"

_'Like I would ever let you do that,'_ she thought to herself, "I appreciate the offer but I'm not that tired yet."

"No of course not," Lee was quick to agree, "you look as radiant as always."

"Shall we go then?"

"Yes of course," Lee said offering her his hand, _'I am not one step closer to winning the girl of my dreams.'_

Shikamaru waited the sensible time of ten seconds before breaking out the booze. Chouji was given the first drink of the night since it was his birthday.

Sakura was taking her time returning to the party. It had taken forever to get rid of Lee and dissuade him from returning to the party himself. Once she did get back everyone seemed to have healthy buzz going.

"Drink up. You have some catching up to do. Especially if you want to catch up to Sasuke and Hikari, they're just pounding them back," Shikamaru said thrusting a cup into Sakura's hand.

Shikamaru was the only on not drinking. Someone had to gather blackmail tonight, not to mention the hangover tomorrow would just be too troublesome. So far Sasuke and Hikari were the only ones completely drunk although both Chouji and Hinata were well on they're way there. Everyone else seemed to be drinking at a more subdued rate. Naruto, as always, was an exception. Earlier he had initiated a drinking contest between himself and Sasuke. He had drunk Sasuke under the table, almost literally. Naruto had a hell of a tolerance which was more than he could say for Hikari. She was tipsy after only two and she had had many more after that. Right Now Neji was trying to get her to slow down.

"Hikari don't you think you've have enough for now?" he asked.

"Don't worry I'm fine. I can take care of myself," she said and tried to stand up to go get another drink, only to fall back onto the couch on which she had been sitting. When she fell she ended up leaning on Neji. She rested her head on his shoulder. "The room's spinning," she giggled as she looked up and Neji looked down at her, "I really like your eyes, they're pretty," she said randomly. "Maybe I should just stay here until the room stops spinning. I'm so comfortable."

Neji tried to fight down a blush after the comment about his eyes. He lost that battle because of the alcohol he had already consumed. Once Hikari decided that she wasn't moving anytime soon, he tensed up. He wasn't sure what to do. His arm was currently resting on the back of the couch and was starting to cramp up, but if he put it down then it would be over her shoulders.

Hinata was on the other side of the room she had noticed the blush on her cousin's face after Hikari had said something to him. He just needed a few more drinks, that should fix things, she decided.

"Neji nii-san here you go," Hinata said and handed him a glass.

"Thank-you Hinata-sama," he said after taking the drink.

"Your welcome, I mixed it myself," she said with a smile.

Neji took a small sip of his drink, it was very strong but he choked in down anyway. That was the problem with Hinata, as soon as she had a few drinks she became careless. She also came right out of her shell and tended to hang all over people. Tonight Naruto seem to be the victim. That confused Neji she no longer had a crush on Naruto. As far as he knew she wasn't interested in anyone at the moment. Her Father was pushing her to focus more on training.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

"It's good," he answered.

"I'll go mix you another one then,"

"Can you get me one too?" Hikari asked.

"Sure," she said and walked away before Neji could protest.

"You have to slow down," Neji said, he had finally decided to put his arm down he could hold it up anymore anyway.

"It's okay," Hikari said. Neji gave her a concerned look. "Fine, I'll take my time with this one okay?"

"Alright."

Hinata retuned a moment later with two more cups. She handed them over and returned to Naruto's side.

After everyone had had several more drinks Shikamaru notice that all of the drinks seemed to be get stronger the drunker everyone got. That meant it was time for the real fun to begin.

"Is everyone ready for a game of spin the bottle?" Shikamaru called out.

Everyone cheered at that and they all settled down into a circle while Shikamaru went to retrieve a bottle.

"Okay here are the rules for Hikari's benefit, they're simple," Shikamaru announced when he returned. "Everyone kisses on the lips for at least ten seconds, regardless of gender, if you refuse you have to taka shot for everyone here, understand?"

"Yeah, let's get things started."

"Okay Chouji you get to start us off," Shikamaru said with a smile.

The game was interesting to say the least. Almost everyone was too drunk to care who they were kissing. Even though some of them still had standards they refused to lower. Hikari had wanted nothing more than to refuse to kiss Sasuke, she went along with it however because Neji had shot her a look that had said, 'No More Drinks for You,' so she complied. Neji actually did refuse a kiss, with is cousin, and therefore was the first to have to take twelve shots of Sake in a row. That resulted in a very heated kiss, between two very drunk individuals on his next spin it landed on Hikari. Ino had, bitched and complained about having to kiss Shino, saying that she hated bugs. She also ended up taking twelve shots when a few of Shino's chakra bugs crawled up her only five seconds into the kiss. There were several other very heated kisses as well the most surprising was the one between Sakura and Ino who by that time were extremely hammered. Even more heated was the one shared between Naruto and Sasuke it seemed they felt the need to compete even then. It wasn't until a full four minutes after the kiss began that Shikamaru decided to put an end to the show. That was when the clothes had begun to come off.

At the end Shikamaru was still in the only sober one. Everything came to a screeching halt at around three in the morning when Kiba got up to relieve himself. Sasuke had spun the bottle only to have it land on what had previously been Kiba's spot which was now occupied by Kakashi, who had been sent by Tsunade to check on things.

Sasuke stood up from his spot on the floor and made his way over to where Kakashi stood, albeit swerving a little. Kakashi was so shocked by what he was seeing that he couldn't move until it was too late. Sasuke reached up to pull down his mask and then pulled his sensei's face down to meet his own.

Horrified by the fact that he had just been kissed by one of his own students, he quickly left to report back to Tsunade.

Shikamaru felt it was time to usher everyone out of the house before the party was crashed.

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To say Tsunade was pissed off was an understatement. The next morning as soon as the sun was high in the sky she sent Kurenai, Gai, Kakashi and Asuma to collect their teams, with the exception of Lee, and deliver them to her office. She went to collect Hikari herself.

At the moment the twelve of them were standing in front of her desk. Almost all of then were looking tired and sick. All of the windows were wide open to allow the sunlight to come pouring in. Several of them were trying to shield their eyes. Sasuke looked like he was ready to throw up. Hikari was leaning against Neji for support. Naruto looked as if he was about to pass out. And Shikamaru just looked bored as usual.

"I am very disappointed in all of you!" Tsunade yelled causing everyone but Shikamaru to cringe. Kiba actually had to cover his sensitive ears. "Under age drinking and unsavory behavior, I expected better from the future leaders of Konoha!" her voice seemed to grow in volume with every word.

"If I may speak Tsunade-sama," Sakura said quietly, "Not all of us were under age."

"Yeah, so why are those of us that are over eighteen here?" Tenten asked.

Tsunade looked thoughtful, if only for a moment, "And tell me Tenten, how did the underage ones get their hand on alcohol in the first place?" Sakura opened her mouth to speak again. "And even if you didn't provide it you did nothing to stop it either! Hikari, I at least thought my sister raised you better than that! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"If I remember correctly, Aunt Tsunade, before I left yesterday your exact words were, 'don't do anything I wouldn't do.' And you were drunk yourself at the time," Hikari said her head not leaving Neji's shoulder.

"You should have more sense in your head than that! Now I have already spoken to all of your guardians and they will be dealing with you accordingly. Hikari you will have to clean the branch house for the next week, and you will not be permitted to leave the Hyuuga grounds."

"How am I supposed to train?" she asked.

"Your not," Tsunade stated, "this is punishment Hikari, and I know how much you love your training. As for you two," Tsunade said addressing Naruto and Sasuke, "Naruto you will go to Iruka for your punishment, Sasuke you will report to Kakashi."

Naruto didn't seem that concerned about Iruka but Sasuke immediately tensed at the thought of going to see Kakashi. After last night it was bound to be an uncomfortable situation.

"That's it, you're all dismissed!" Tsunade yelled.

Everyone slowly made their way out of the Hokage tower. As soon as they got outside Naruto leading against the wall and Sasuke lost his composure and threw-up causing Ino, Hinata, Chouji, and Kiba to do the same.

"Hey Shino," Kiba said once he finished, "Can I used your glasses, my eyes are killing me."

"No," Shino said bluntly before walking away.

"Hey guys," Naruto said before anyone else could leave. "Do any of you remember what happened last night?"

"I do," Shikamaru said with a smirk. "You should have seen the look on Kakashi's face after Sasuke kissed him," he laughed.

Everyone looked at Shikamaru in shock, "Y-you saw Kakashi-sensei's face?" Sakura asked.

"Of course, well I should get going now, this punishment is going to be so troublesome," he said before they could ask anymore questions.

AN- I'm not sure how many people will read this but it doesn't really matter I'm really just writing it because I want to. To anyone that is reading this I'm sorry it took so long to update I was having a bad case of writer's block. It was finally cured when I started working night shift, I'm an insomniac and night shift was boring. Well I do have the next chapter Punishments finished, but its hand written, so I just have to type it up still, I've also started on the next chapter too. So please Read and Review, but even if you don't I'll still update. Also there may be a lot of mistakes in this chapter my beta reader is at camp for seven weeks so if anyone want to sub for her email me or say so in your review.


	5. Chapter 5: Punishment

**Chapter Five: Punishment**

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Masashi Kishimoto does. I just make them do naughty things.

After returning to the Hyuuga grounds both Hikari and Hinata were lucky enough to be allowed to sleep for a few hours before they had to start their punishments. As soon as the girls entered their respective room Hiashi ordered Neji to start cleaning, stating that he would receive his new punishment with the girls later in the afternoon.

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Hikari was woken up by a timid knock at the door at one thirty.

"Come in!" she called, expecting it to be Hinata.

"Hikari?" Neji said to her surprise.

"Yeah?" she said sitting up sleepily.

"My Uncle is requesting you downstairs. He wants you and Hinata to eat before we start our punishments."

"Won't you be joining us?"

"I already ate. I have to clean your room first anyway."

"Umm okay, just let me get dressed and I'll be right down."

Neji nodded and left the room. Hikari realized she felt bad for him as she dressed for a day of cleaning. She could tell he was lying to her. He probably wasn't allowed to eat until he had finished all of his punishments. She had used that stoic expression herself too many times to be fooled by it.

After eating, Hikari made her way to the branch house to start cleaning, while Hinata left to do some kind of training with a woman named Anko.

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When Hinata got to the bridge Anko was already there waiting for her. Her small features and womanly figure were deceptive of the young woman's true personality. Anko was a genuine hard-ass that had a reputation for not taking any shit from anyone.

Hinata swallowed the lump in her throat, she didn't know what her Father wanted her to train in but she felt her nerves take over as soon as she saw Anko. This wasn't going to be easy. She shifted her gaze to the ground as she fidgeted under Anko's intense stare.

"Look at me Hinata!" Anko commanded.

Hinata met her gaze only for a moment before her eyes flickered to the left. "Yes sensei?" she said meekly.

"Starting now we will be working on building up your confidence. You Father tells me it's been a problem for awhile, says everyone pushes you around. I even heard that was the reason you got mixed up in all that drinking last night. Well that's all going to stop now! Understand?"

"Yes sensei," Hinata squeaked.

"I won't be finished with you until you learn to say no and stand up for yourself. Now for starters no one is ever going to take you seriously when you can't even maintain eye contact. Do I make my self clear?"

"Yes sensei."

"I can't hear you,"

Yes this definitely was not going to be easy.

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Neji was almost finished cleaning Hikari's room, it wasn't that the room was dirty it was that his uncle wanted the room immaculate. Everything had been returned to its proper place, he had swept under the bed, washed the floor and cleaning the windows. All he had left to do now was the bathroom. Once finished, it was time to start his new punishment of giving the family cat, Gin, a bath. The task seemed simple enough but it wasn't. Gin didn't like Neji and was always trying to scratch him any time he cam close.

He started rinsing Gin off when his Uncle informed him that several neighbors had requested that he give their cats baths as well. It was going to be a long painful day.

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Hikari was disgusted. It wasn't that she hated cleaning, she could care less. Not all on the rooms in the branch house were dirty either. In fact most of them were spotless. She was disgusted by the living conditions of the branch house when compared to that of the members of the main house. All of the bedrooms were only big enough for a bed and a dresser. All of the women shared one bathroom and the men another. She wondered whether her Aunt knew about any of this and if she could find a way to change things.

Hikari left the bathrooms for last. The women's bathroom was decently clean and she didn't have to spend much time in there. The men's room was a whole different story. Hikari doubted it had ever been cleaned before. A part of her wondered how Neji or any of the other men for that matter could bare it. The smell alone made her want to gag. It took her two and a half hours to clean that room alone. At the end of day, feeling exhausted and nauseous, she vowed to herself that she would continue to clean the men's room in the branch house even after her punishment was through.

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Hinata finally got home at six o'clock that evening. She was in the kitchen making some dinner when Hikari came in.

"Hikari would you like something to eat?" she asked.

"No, I'm afraid it'll take awhile to get me appetite back after cleaning that bathroom."

"It was what bad?"

"Worse," she forced a smile, "How'd your training go?"

"I'd rather not talk about it. Did you see Neji nii-san before you left?

"No."

"He's probably still out back, let's bring him something to eat."

"Okay just let me get changed, I'm this smell will stay with these clothes forever."

Within minutes Hikari was ready to go. Out back Neji was still hard at work. With only two cats left his arms were covered in blood from the numerous scratch marks. The small cuts burned from the soapy water causing him to cringe.

"Want some help?" Hikari offered.

"I'm fine, why don't you guys head over to the picnic table, I'll join you in a few minutes."

Hikari passed the message on to Hinata before running inside to get rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, medical tape and gauze. She came back just as Neji sat down. When he saw what she was carrying he jumped back up.

"Its fine I don't need anything," he said quickly.

"Neji, God knows if those cats had anything, those cuts should be cleaned before infection has a chance to set in," Hikari said soothingly as she tried to ease his obvious discomfort.

"I said I was fine, I'll clean then them up later," he insisted.

"Neji, sit down, shut up, and let me take care of these cuts before I stab you with this fork," Hikari ordered and she grabbed the fork off of the table.

Neji's eyes widened in surprise giving Hikari an opportunity to shove him back onto the bench. She then soaked a cotton ball in the alcohol and began to dab at his left arm. Neji hissed in pain and glared at her, but made no move to get away.

"Hinata can you start on his right arm?"

As Hinata moved to help, Neji shot her a glare as well, which Hikari caught, so she put more pressure on his arm.

"Oww, what'd you do that for?"

"You know why, now stop glaring, we're only trying to help."

In the time it took to get him all cleaned up, Hikari caught a few more glares directed at them. Each time this happened she pushed harder.

"Now that wasn't so bad was it?" Hikari asked when she was done.

Neji was silent. He didn't want to prove her right. It had hurt like a bitch, yet it wasn't as painful as other wounds he had sustained over the years. It was just the shear numbers that had made it almost unbearable.

"Now you can eat," Hikari said passing him the dinner Hinata had prepared for him.

"I'm not hungry," he muttered.

"Aww you're so cute sulking like that," Hikari teased. "Now seriously, Hinata went through the trouble of making you dinner so you had better eat it."

Neji looked at her, she had a looking in her eyes that told him she wasn't about to back down. It was the same look she had had when she had brought out the rubbing alcohol. There would be no point in arguing with her. He picked up his fork; the same one Hikari had threatened him with, and began to eat.

"Why aren't you eating?" he asked Hikari.

"Because your bathroom was gross, it made me lose my appetite."

Neji laughed, "I would've expected you to have a stronger stomach."

Hikari hit him playfully, "I do have a strong stomach, but that place smelled like a massacre occurred inside."

"Hinata, Hikari the two of you did well today, why don't you come inside and get cleaned up. Hanabi just went to pick up a few movies, you girls can relax for awhile before you sleep," Hiashi called from the back door. "Neji you should rest up as well," he added as an after thought.

Hikari sighed, she was really starting to hate that man, "Well I guess its goodnight Neji," she said placing her hand on his shoulder and letting it linger a bit longer that necessary. "Promise me you'll clean those again before you go to sleep, or I'll do it myself tomorrow."

"Okay I will."

"Promise?"

"I promise," he answered with a small smile.

"Goodnight Neji nii-san," Hinata said quietly.

"Goodnight Hinata-sama, Hikari."

Neji made his way back to the branch house deep in thought. He had seen it in her eyes if only for a second. It wasn't pity, it was understanding, the very thought was refreshing, so many looked at him with either pity or disgust in their eyes. Very few seemed to understand him. Yet Hikari understood him after such a short time, it made him respect her.

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The next week passed slowly for Hikari there wasn't much that interested her anymore. She was growing restless being unable to leave the grounds. To top things off she seemed to have misplaced her medication. She could have used that as a valid excuse to leave the grounds if her Aunt had known about the pills. However she didn't and she meant to keep it that way. Also her prescription wasn't up for another two weeks anyway. She had made so much progress that she decided she could survive the three weeks without them, big mistake, confinement was taking its toll and had brought her to the edge once more. So she took out her frustrations the only way she knew how, after all the only one in the village that knew her secret was Uncle Jiraiya, and it wasn't likely he would notice the change in her behavior. As long as she was careful no one would.

Something was wrong with Hikari and Neji wanted to know what it was. He knew Hinata had noticed the change as well, but also knew she'd never confront Hikari. So that left him alone. She had become withdrawn; she left her room only to do her chores. Hinata had told him she rarely came down for meals anymore and when she did she barely touched her food. The bags under her eyes said she wasn't sleeping well. He was on his way over to the main house right now. Her confinement to the grounds was over now and he planned to take her out somewhere to try and get her spirits up before he asked any questions.

Neji knocked on the door and Hikari opened a moment later.

"Hi Neji come on in," she said with a fake smile plastered on her face. "No one's here right now, I think they were going out to dinner and movie."

"That's fine. I was just wondering if you'd like to go grab a bite to eat, I know a really good sushi place. We can celebrate the end of your punishment."

At first it looked as though she would protest but then she nodded and followed Neji out. After dinner he took her to a small tea house where they could talk privately.

"Are you okay Hikari? You've seemed a little distant the last few days."

"It's nothing. I'll be fine now just a bit of cabin fever, being cooped up too long. I'm not used to that. I like solitude but I'm used to being able to move around freely too, with no confines.

"Surely you had some rules back home."

"Not really, my Mom knew I could take care of myself thanks to my Uncles. So she didn't worry too much." It came out naturally, the excuse, it was partially true anyway, she hated being cooped up and it did tend to make her a little stir crazy.

Hikari quickly street the conversation away from herself and onto more trivial matters. Shortly after she claimed she was tired and they headed back. Once in the relative safety of you own room she berated herself, _'How could I be so stupid, no one was supposed to notice. I hope he bought that damn story.'_ She got undressed and slipped under the covers, she was exhausted, and lately she found she had no energy. No matter how much she slept she never felt rested.

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Neji found himself standing outside Hikari's door for a second night in a row. Only this time Hinata had asked him to. Hikari hadn't eating anything today and the one time she had actually opened the door she had looked sick. When Hinata had offered to call a doctor Hikari had insisted it was nothing and said that she would just sleep it off.

"Hikari please open the door, I need to talk to you," he called.

"Can't you come back later, I'm trying to sleep."

"Look I'll only take a few minutes of your time please let me in."

"Fine."

Neji heard a bit of shuffling around and the door was finally opened. Neji stepped in and shut the door behind him. He looked at Hikari, she was almost as whit as a sheet and her eyes looked even more sunken than before. The room itself looked as if a tornado had ripped through. Clothes were everywhere, the desk drawers had been dumped out, the sheets had been ripped off the bed, and the mattress had been moved as well.

"Are you going to stand there all night or do you have something to say?" she asked impatiently.

"What happened in here, it looks like a war zone?"

"I lost something I was trying to find it." It was the truth after all.

"What on earth could be so important that you'd have to tear the room apart?"

"It doesn't matter anymore, now what can I do for you?" Hikari started to sway on her feet as if she would collapse any moment.

"I really think you should see a doctor, or at the very least your aunt."

"No! I don't need a doctor I——," she didn't get to finish what she was saying because she collapsed.

Thanks to Neji's quick reflexes he was able to catch her before she hit the ground. He quickly placed her on the bed and was reaching for the phone when she grabbed he arm.

"Please don't call anyone," she had a look of desperation in her eyes.

Neji relented, "Fine I won't call anyone, but I'm staying here until your better."

She was too tired to argue so she merely nodded before passing out. It was then that Neji saw blood. It was leaking out from under her right arm band. He gently removed is to discover multiple cuts of varying depths on her arm all a safe distance away from her major veins. Most of the cuts were no more than three days old although he could see scars from long ago.

_'So this is what you're hiding.' _ Neji removed her other arm band only to find the same thing. Neji went into the bathroom the retrieve the same items Hikari had used on him last week. Gently so that he wouldn't wake her, he began to clean her wounds. Just as he finished there was a knock on the door.

Neji opened it to find Hinata standing there, "Is everything okay? Neji nii-san?"

"She'll be fine, I think it's just the flu, I'll stay with her until she's feeling better," he explained.

"Is there anything I can get for her?"

"Just water for now."

"Alright I'll be back in a moment."

Neji closed the door. He felt bad about lying to his cousin but he didn't want to betray Hikari's trust either. He had promised after all that he would call anyone. So for now he would keep quiet, he would help her himself and if that failed he would insist that she seek help. True to her word Hinata returned with a few bottles of water. Neji closed the door once more, wrapped Hikari's arms and set about putting her room back in order. Once everything was back in its proper place Neji pulled a chair next to the bed and watched over her until sleep finally claimed him as well. He couldn't figure it out, why did he care so much? Why did she have such a strong effect on him? When she was around everything changed, he felt at ease around her, like he could relax at last. She made him laugh, could match wits with him and it seemed like she could control him, like that day with the cat baths. She had awoken feeling in him that he had never felt before yet these new feelings didn't scare him. He could almost feel the wall he had erected to keep people out crumbling when she was around, and he welcomed it. Now saw was falling apart in from of his eyes and he wanted to help her pick up the pieces. He couldn't lose her so soon after finding her.

AN- So here's the next chapter I just could stop typing, PLEASE read and REVIEW while I'm working on the next chapter Healing and a Gift, its only half done right now. So it'll be a little longer for the update……probably, I could still REALLY use a new beta reader too.


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